International testing by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows NSW students are struggling with the basics, with reading and mathematics results at or near record lows after three years under Labor.
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Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, measuring 15-year-olds\u2019 ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.
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The 2025 results show:
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Reading scores have fallen since 2022 with results at the lowest levels recorded since testing started in 2000.
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Mathematics scores have also fallen to the lowest on record.
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Only 50 per cent of NSW students are meeting the national proficiency standard in mathematics and 56 per cent in reading.
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0NSW is being outperformed by Victoria, the closest comparable state.
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The results follow disappointing NAPLAN results last month which showed the number of NSW year 3 students needing additional support for numeracy increased by over a quarter in the three years since NSW Labor came to office.
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Around 30 per cent of NSW students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are also not meeting national benchmarks for reading, writing and numeracy.
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Shadow Minister for Education Mark Speakman said the NSW Labor Government\u2019s failure to improve student outcomes was undermining confidence in public schools.
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\u201cStudent numbers in government schools rose by over 40,000 under the Liberals and Nationals but fell by over 260 under the first two years of the Labor Government,\u201d Mr Speakman said.
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\u201cThis year\u2019s Budget cuts education employee expenses by around five per cent after inflation and assumes further falling public school enrolments and teacher numbers.\u201d
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\u201cThese results should concern every parent who expects their child to leave school with strong reading, writing and mathematics skills.\u201d
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\u201cAfter more than three years in government and all the talk, Labor has failed to improve student outcomes and students can\u2019t afford more of the same.\u201d
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Mr Speakman said that the Government must snap out of its complacency and urgently fix its approach across the board, including:
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0ensuring evidence-based, explicit teaching methods for reading and mathematics, which have been shown to produce the best results, are actually being used in all classrooms
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0initial and ongoing training of teaching reading and mathematics
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0giving teachers the training and support they need for effective classroom behaviour management
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0ensuring technology is not being counter-productive in classrooms support for children with disability<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
International testing by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows NSW students are struggling with the basics, with reading and mathematics results at or near record lows after three years under Labor.\u00a0Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, measuring 15-year-olds\u2019 ability to use their reading, mathematics … Continue reading “NSW School results go backwards under Labor”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40758,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40757\/revisions\/40758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}